Doug,
Parroting doug ===>We truly are a nation of idiots. We deserve Rush Limbaugh,
Sarah Palin, and Pat Robertson <=== end parroting Doug
I don't think one has to be stupid to engage in Dialogues of the Deaf. We do
that sort of thing quite well in FRIAM, from time to time, and we are, ex
hypothesi, VERY smart.
Somewhere along the way, We lost our faith that there is a Truth Of The
Matter. In the fifties, you had to believe that you were right, when you said
something. Nowadays, you just have to believe you are plausible. (I blame the
post-modernists myself ... but now this message is becoming an example of
itself.)
That having been said, are the Tea-Totallers any worse than the people who put
McCarthy into office in the 50's?
Nick
Nicholas S. Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology,
Clark University (nthomp...@clarku.edu)
http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/
http://www.cusf.org [City University of Santa Fe]
----- Original Message -----
From: Douglas Roberts
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
Sent: 2/14/2010 9:05:07 AM
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Sources of Innovation
Pamela,
I think the healthcare issue goes way beyond just the usual corporate profit
protection, pay for play political game. Look at how polarized the nation has
become over just this issue alone. Look at how many people don't believe that
the healthcare issue is really about healthcare insurance industry profit
protection.
We truly are a nation of idiots. We deserve Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, and
Pat Robertson.
Model that, if you like. The agents in the individual based simulation won't
need much sophistication.
--Doug
On Sun, Feb 14, 2010 at 8:00 AM, Pamela McCorduck <pam...@well.com> wrote:
When Kennedy envisioned going to the moon, no lobby existed to fight
ferociously for the sole right to take the profits from going to the moon, and
the sole right to decide who gets to go.
If you read the not-very-deep subtext in this fight, you will see that it's not
about giving better healthcare to Americans (which we desperately need) but
about protecting the enormous profits of the healthcare insurance industry.
It's dressed up in "right to choose," and "privacy between doctor and patient,"
and "keep the government out of medical care," but it's really about profit
protection. From several different and reliable sources (one of them a
congressional candidate) I have heard that since early last summer, the
insurance and pharmaceuticals industries have been spending over $1 million per
day on lobbying. It continues. You can do the arithmetic.
The media regularly reports on how much better, cheaper, and more effective
medical plans are all around the developed world. It doesn't penetrate $1
million-plus per day.
On Feb 13, 2010, at 3:55 PM, Jochen Fromm wrote:
Where does all this whining about health care
come from? Everyone in Germany has a health
insurance, it is obligatory. There is general
agreement here that the European (and esp.
the German) health care system is better
and more social than the one in the US.
The USA obviously needs a better health care
system. Where is the American optimism and
the "i believe we can do it" spirit? I've heard
that optimism and positive thinking is a typical
American attitude.
America is lacking a vision, something like
Kennedy's vision to bring a man to the moon
and back. Military and NASA won't do it
this time. A vision or a common dream which
would foster technological innovation. Schmidt
mentioned "renewable energy" and green
technology. What about a clean L.A. with
fresh air? A large scale scientific initiative
to create the first AI would be another one.
America would have the resources to do it, it
has the companies with the largest data centers.
It should be proud of Google, Microsoft,
Amazon, and Apple. It is difficult to understand
why it disputes about health care so long.
-J.
----- Original Message ----- From: Roger Critchlow
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
Sent: Saturday, February 13, 2010 6:54 PM
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Sources of Innovation
[...] We're too busy defending ourselves from hedge fund vampires and health
care ghouls to worry about growth. Say what you will about the undead, they
steal their profits fair and square and invest them in the rule of law.
============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
